Calibration
by Darkpenn
Summary: To put old demons to rest, Christina has to face her past. But she doesn't have to do it alone.


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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Calibration/span/strong/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/em/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/em/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"To put old demons to rest, Christina has to face her past. But she doesn't have to doa name="_GoBack"/a it alone./span/em/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/em/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/em/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"[Author's note: This story takes place soon after the end of the story /span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The Wanderer Returns/spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;". It is the second of a four-part series, to be known collectively as /span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The Renegades/spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;".]/span/em/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"It was a memory of something that had happened years before. She was lying on a narrow bed, strapped down. The plastic bag of liquid anaesthetic that had been brought with her from the hospital, with the tube going into her arm, was almost finished. When it was gone the pain would return. From her shattered limbs, the smashed organs, the burned skin. She began to cry, tears welling in her eyes. For herself, for her brother, for ... everything./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"From the next bed, there was a soft voice. "Do not cry, pretty," it said. "Have courage."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"It took her a moment to realise that the words had been in Italian. Through the growing pain, she felt a surge of gratitude. The few words in her old tongue were like a lifeline, thrown to her as she was going under in a storm./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"She did her best to turn her head to see. It was a man, middle-aged but frail, his skin the colour of ash./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"She tried to speak. "Not ... pretty ... anymore," she rasped./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Pretty enough from where I am," he said. "Why are you here?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Car ... accident. You?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Motor neurone disease. Slow paralysis. Death by inches. Maybe this place can help. That was the offer. But I don't know. Doesn't look much like a clinic to me. Looks more like some sort of factory."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Soon enough, they had found out what sort of place the Factory was. They had found out what the Recruiter had meant by 'cure'./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"She had thought that nothing could be worse than the injuries from the accident. She was wrong. But occasionally, just occasionally, when they brought her back from a session, there would be a voice drifting out of the darkness next to her. "Courage," it would say. "Be strong." Once, the voice had sung a little song to her, an Italian song she had heard from her Nona when she was a child./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Sometimes they would talk, if they could. The man said he had been confined to a wheelchair for many years, and then a bed. He had run his own company. He had had a family. Wealth, friends. No more. She told him that her name was Christina. He had said it was a lovely name./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"And then one night he was gone. No more voice in the darkness. She had wished she had tears left to cry./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The next session had been the one when her mutant genes had activated. She had become ... something else. And then Francis had appeared, and called her Angel Dust, and made her an offer she could not refuse. /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"That was four years ago now. But she had not forgotten./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Unable to sleep, Christina got of bed, aiming to make herself a strong drink. She went into the kitchen of the little house she had rented for herself and her brother. As she passed Pietro's room, she heard him moaning in his sleep. At least he no longer woke screaming. She took that as a sign of recovery./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"As her drank her whiskey, she leafed through the black-covered book again. She could not find what she wanted to find. She cursed herself; she had never been smart, even ... before. She could fight things, break things, hammer them into submission. But the simple task of locating a name on a list was beyond her. She needed help. Someone ... clever./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"She knew only one clever person. She located her phone and found a number. She called it. She realised she was pleased to have a reason to do it. Or an excuse./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Hello?" said a bleary voice./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Christina felt a little /spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"pop/span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" in her chest. She suddenly realised it was three o'clock in the morning. She wondered if she should simply hang up./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Then the voice said. "Damn, it's good to hear from you, Christina. Tell me where you are and I'll come."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Christina smiled. "Good to hear your voice too," she said. She gave her the address./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""On my way," said Ellie./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Part II/span/strong/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"They were sitting on the roof of the little house, once more watching the sun rise./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""And then?" said Ellie./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""And then I became Francis' assistant. I asked Francis if he knew what had happened to the guy but he didn't know, or wouldn't tell me. I asked other people but no-one knew. I've tried to find him in the book but I can't work it out. Maybe you can."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""I'll try. No promises, some of that information is pretty sketchy. Maybe I can tap into some computer databases that might help."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Christina nodded. "And what have you been doing?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""I'm staying at the Xavier mansion. I don't think I'll be there much longer. I'm trying to decide how to tell them I'm not going to be an X-Man."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Oh, Nikolai – Colossus – already knows that. I think he just likes having you around."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""He has a real name? Huh, I never knew that. That's right, you two have been on a couple of dates, haven't you? How's that working out?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""So-so. I don't think I can commit to anything until Pietro is better. And I don't think Nikolai is for me. He's sweet but very ... how can I put it ... "/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Upright?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Yeah. But we'll see."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Got to the sex yet?"/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""I'm not telling you that! Damn, you're just a kid!"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Ellie laughed. She put her head on Christina's shoulder, and Christina put an arm around her./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Missed you," said Ellie./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Whatcha doin'?" said the girl known around the mansion campus as JL to Ellie, who was working at a computer terminal in the Library. She glanced at the screen. "Why are you looking at the website of the Motor Neuron Disease Association?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""It has a list of people who suffered from it. I'm trying to locate one. Tough going, without a name."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"JL lowered her voice. "This is about the Factory, isn't it?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Ellie said nothing. /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Maybe I can help," said JL. "Cross-referencing is my middle name. I'm actually Jubilation Cross-Referencing Lee. What else do you know about the person?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Italian background. Had a company. He ceased to officially exist about four years back." /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"They called up various databases and sites, narrowing the search./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Here it is," said JL finally. "Enrico Pucinni, listed as deceased by his family but no record of a funeral."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Ellie scanned through the photocopied pages of the Factory book. In one case, there were initials: EP. But the timing matched. She wrote down everything they had found./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Thanks," said Ellie./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""It will cost you, you know. Another ride on the back of that great Harley-D bike of yours."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Ellie laughed. "Sure." /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""One more thing," said JL. She pressed the command for DELETE BROWSING HISTORY./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Here it is," said Ellie, handing the notes to Christina. "I had some help. A lot of people at the mansion don't much like the way the X-Men leadership has decided that the Factory mutants don't exist."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Ah, the X-Men. You can always count on them to be assholes." She looked at the line which showed where Enrico had eventually gone. CLE. "What does that mean?" she said./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""I looked that up too, and there's only one thing it can mean. City Light and Electricity."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""You mean ... ?"/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Yes. The power company." /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Part III/span/strong/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"George Milson, the head of Human Resources at CLE, wondered why the two women had asked specifically to meet with him. It was not a usual part of his job but he was not complaining. The tall woman in the Armani suit was stylishly attractive, and so was her young assistant, even with her über-cropped hair. Seemed a bit young for the job but appeared to be competent./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Now the three of them were sitting in one of the meeting rooms of the main building of the company. Even here, you could hear the background hum of the turbines./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""We have been through your performance data and we are very impressed with the efficiency gains you have made in the past few years," said the tall woman, who had given her name as Tina Polvere. "We are interested in acquiring the asset that has helped you with those improvements."/span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Well, everyone in the company has been working very hard – " he said./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""I'm sure, but I mean the special asset you acquired four years ago."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""The /spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"special/span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" asset," said the young woman./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Milson's eyes flicked to the security camera in the corner./span/p  
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p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Yes," said the tall woman. "The ... /spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"very special/span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" asset."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""I ... I don't know what you mean," he said./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Sure you do," said the young woman./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Well, I don't. And I think you should leave. It was a pleasure to meet you." He stood up and put his hand out, a goodbye handshake./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The tall woman smiled and stood. She took his hand./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The young woman walked over to the camera. There seemed to be a flash of something from her hand. The light that showed that the camera was on blinked out./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"He suddenly realised that the woman in Armani was not only tall but strong. And she still had his hand in hers. He tried to pull it away. It was like trying to pull it out of solid concrete./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"And now the concrete began to squeeze./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"And squeeze. The woman smiled./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"He thought he could feel the bones in his hand start to crack. "I ... I'll scream," he said through gritted teeth./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Quite a lot, probably," said the young one./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Now, about the ... special asset," said the woman who was grinding his flesh into shredded meat./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"He went down on his knees. There was a /spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"crack!/span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" as something in his hand broke./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""That's one," said the young woman. She was now perched, almost playfully, on the edge of the table. "205 left."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Another one went./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""204 and counting."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Alright!" he shouted. "Just ... stop! I'll take you to him!"/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The pressure ceased. The big woman let the hand go. She gestured towards the door. And she put her hand on his shoulder. Not gently. "Just in case you are thinking you can call out to anyone we pass," she said, "bear in mind that it will take me just one whack on the spine to turn you into a quadriplegic."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"He nodded. He led them to an elevator and they all went in. He punched a code into a keypad. The elevator went down, and down. Eventually, it stopped and they got out and walked along an empty, concrete corridor. They came to a door marked CALIBRATION UNIT./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Milson punched in another code. The door opened, revealing a room like a cell./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"There was a grey-haired man in tattered clothes walking on a treadmill, staring at a series of screens. One of the screens began to beep, and a green line began to drop. The man walked faster, almost running, making the speed of the treadmill increase. He pushed buttons on a console in front of him. The line returned to its position and steadied. The beeping stopped./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Hello, my friend," said Christina softly./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The man started. He turned to face them, still walking. He looked at her face, as if trying to remember something. He was wearing a control collar./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Christina took hold of the collar. She broke it, and tore it away./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"She stepped back, and looked again at the man, who was still staring at her. She began to sing a little Italian song./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"He gasped. There was a flash of recognition in his eyes. He leaped off the treadmill and embraced her, weeping./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Ellie turned to Milson. "Explain," she said. He saw that her eyes were glowing./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""He ... is ... an asset. He never gets tired, never needs to sleep, doesn't need much food. He keeps the turbines calibrated. All the time. If the turbines become unbalanced, they eventually stop and have to be re-started."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""You know, there are computers that can do that."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""But ... this is cheaper. Much cheaper. Efficiency gains."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Huh," she said. "Well, Mister HR, here's what you're going to do. You will return to your office and transfer every cent of company money you can lay your hands on into this account. Think of it as back pay." She handed him a card with a series of numbers. "If you don't, we will ... hmm, let me think ... "/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""You won't ... tell the media, will you?"/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Of course not. But we will take you – and don't imagine you can hide from us – to a very dark place, and kill you very, very slowly. It would last weeks, perhaps months. You think your hand hurts? It doesn't."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"She put her hand on his arm. There was a surge of heat. He could feel the skin under his shirt begin to blister. He gave a cry of pain./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Clear on this?" she said./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"He nodded./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"One of the screens began to beep. "Don't worry, I'll fix it," said the young woman./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Then she blew every piece of machinery in the room to scrap./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Part IV/span/strong/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""What will you do now, Enrico?" said Pietro. "You can stay here, if you want." The four of them were at the little house. Ellie's motorbike was parked outside; she had said she would return to the mansion soon./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Thanks," he said. "But ... before the Factory, I owned a property, a sort of farm, in the country. I never told my family about it, so when they sold off all my assets they probably missed it. If it's still standing, I'd like to go there. Maybe you three would come with me, it's big enough. Might need some fixing up."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Well, as it happens you just got paid," said Ellie. She held up her phone, which showed a bank account that had just received a very large transfer./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"The others looked at it. "/spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Marone!/span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"" said Pietro./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""And then some," added Christina./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""This farm," said Ellie. "You say it's pretty big and out of the way. Is it the sort of place where people could go if they needed to recover?"/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""I ... I guess so, if it was set up for it."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""In the meantime," said Ellie, "you need a mutant name, Enrico. It's part of claiming your identity. That's what some people say, anyway."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""A mutant name? But what? The mutant transformation got rid of the disease but I'm not strong like Christina or Pietro, and I can't generate energy blasts like you. All I can do is ... endure."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;""Then maybe that's it. N-dure."/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"He smiled. "That's ... well, that's perfect. But ... what do you mean, about the farm? What are you thinking?"/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"So she told them./span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-indent: 14.2pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"END/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Note to readers: Darkpenn recently published a novel about a female superhero (sort of). Anyone who is interested can find it on Amazon. Title is /spanem style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"I, Viridian: Supervillain/span/emspan style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;". E-copy and hard copy. Author name is Derek Parker. Book blurb is:/span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"This is the story of Viridian: supervillain, fan of Shakespeare, owner of many sexy shoes, carefree and irresponsible at the competitive level, bearer of a mystical gem that gives her incredible powers./span/em/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"Raised by thieves to be a thief, she was never really a child, or never grew up, she doesn't know which. When she washes up on the shores of Oklahoma City, pursued by shadowy forces and an unknown enemy, she links up with an oddball gang of would-be supercriminals: mastermind Monk, samurai Tantō, strongman Cave, and the remarkable Flux./span/em/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;"And through them she discovers what it is she is looking for: a reason to fight, a reason to stay, a reason to care, and, most of all, a reason to love./span/em/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p  
p style="text-align: center;" /p  
p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 14.2pt;" align="center"span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: medium;" /span/p 


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